


Pearlescence

by sidsaid



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Healing, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-TRoS, Reylo - Freeform, TRoS Spoilers, probably the one time i’ll keep to canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:00:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21866371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidsaid/pseuds/sidsaid
Summary: A future forged together, without the Force and just each other.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 15
Kudos: 238





	Pearlescence

**Author's Note:**

> I am writing this note prior to writing any of whatever the below fic becomes. I felt like I needed to say that the current state I’m writing it in is fractured. There is a lot of disappointment in me, and in this dark timeline, we literally can only take the small wins. The small win being that Ben was redeemed and Reylo is canon. At what cost, is a good point, but at least with that, we can rebuild around our own dreams.   
> I am a hard believer in the ‘Death of the Author’ literary criticism by Roland Barthes (do read it, it is quite excellent), and so in the vein of that, we as fans can lay claim to not only Star Wars, but to the pairings within it.   
> This will also be the only fix-it fic I write I think. After this, this movie will no longer feature as canon in my fics. Maybe one day I’ll change my mind, but that is my current opinion.   
> I love and adore every one of you. Thank you.

Rey supposed she should have considered death. 

When she had travelled across the galaxy to face her grandfather, she’d thought only of stopping him at all costs. At the expense of her friends, of her own life, and even if she had created a path for the Resistance to follow, this final quest she knew she was to be made on her own. Yet she wasn’t scared. Not anymore.

The girl who had fought through Jakku’s frozen nights. Who had grown, growing more and more defined by her own suffering at the hands of Plutt, at her own delusions, was changed now. 

Standing across from Palpatine, she’d known what Ben had felt for all those years. The unending call in her blood. The sins of her family flowing through her very existence, making this the path that could only be walked by her. 

The sting of tears came as she dropped to her knees, the world closing in on her as death came. Cold and lonely. Feeling the gentle throbbing as the Force shifted around her, spilling over at the destruction of Palpatine’s temple. 

Even Ben’s constant presence in the corner of her mind had disappeared with Palpatine’s actions and she felt the walls close in on her, leaving her dark and alone. 

_ Rey _ . 

It was like the beginning of rain. Always surprising, yet purifying, freeing. Rebirth. 

Her eyes blinked open and still she was in this dark basement, the scent of death and smoke filling her nose, but eyes meeting hers. Wide and alert, staring and staring, not saying anything. She was warm for once, tucked in his arms, a comforting hand against her stomach and her tears finally fell then.

‘Ben,’ Rey gasped, reaching for him. 

His smile was blinding and disarming; like the sun’s heat, warm and radiant and Rey knew his love was in every dance of his eyes, every shudder of his arms. 

It was easy to meet his gaze, to replicate his same smile as her hand rested against his. The words she’d heard once, whether from Finn she wasn’t quite sure, but words that had stuck with her.

_ That’s how we’re gonna win...saving what we love _ . 

Rey closed the gap, pressing chapped lips tentatively against Ben’s, her hand reaching to his cheek, holding him closely and reaching for him through the Force; as slight as their connection was now. 

He pulled her more tightly against him, their kiss finding more surety in its depth, in the emotions that they wanted to share between each other.

When they were apart, Rey saw his eyes falter and she held on more tightly to him, beginning to feel his pain flowing through the Force. He’d fallen, she realised, and bringing her back had drained him to the edge of everything, to the extent that she felt their bond was the only thing holding him together, tethering him to the universe. 

‘I can’t—’ he murmured. 

Rey smiled gently, brushing his hair from his face as she leaned him back.

‘I’m right here, Ben. I’ll be right here.’ 

His eyes fluttered closed and she looked about her, at the destruction of the temple around her, before she used whatever strength she had to lift him and half-carry half-drag him back to the platform. 

Eventually they reached the X-Wing, Ben still unconscious, but breathing steadily against her neck. 

Even with how tight the squeeze was in the ship, once they were out of Exogol’s perilous system, it was a short jump to a sizable inhabited world where Rey could find a medical facility. Ben was already stirring by the time they had touched down on a world with more rivers than Rey had ever seen before. 

‘Rey?’ 

‘I’m here, Ben.’ 

A sedative knocked him out next, and when he was awake again, his leg was braced for a cast, he was covered in batca bandages and several fluids were being pumped into him. Rey sat beside him, her legs crossed under her as he lay on a low cot. Her hand gripped his tightly, and when his head turned to her, her other hand reached to rest against his jaw.

‘I didn’t die?’ 

Rey snorted softly. ‘Not yet. It’s not time.’ 

‘I love you.’ 

She smiled, a giggle bursting from her mouth unprompted and surprised by his admission. Even when she already knew and felt it so deeply and surely within herself too. Though that confidence in her own feelings was followed by tears and she rested her forehead against his shoulder, holding his hand tightly. ‘Thank you, Ben. For coming for me.’ 

‘I was always going to come for you.’ He murmured. ‘We were always supposed to face him together.’ Rey leaned back, holding his eyes, trying to read them. ‘I just hadn’t realised before,’ he continued. ‘But I know that now. The Force connected us for a reason.’

‘To be together,’ she finished for him, smiling. 

Ben nodded. 

‘Happy and together.’ Rey wiped at her tears with the back of her hand and climbed into the cot, holding Ben as best as she could while trying not to jostle his injuries. 

‘Is that enough for you?’ He asked, looking at her earnestly, fear in his gaze. ‘I don’t...the Force, it’s not the same.’ 

For the first time Rey realised what was so different, and that even though she still felt their connection, it was thin. And she felt it too. In herself. The heavy weight of the Force in her veins, slow-moving like tar and un-willing, un-bending. They’d both lost something on Exogol yet Rey felt relief in it. That their roles in this could end, or at least be reduced. They could be two individuals, without the weight of legacy behind them, with just each other.

Rey nodded, her smile watery, and she squeezed him tighter, only loosening her grip at his wheeze. ‘I’ll teach you how to be normal.’

Ben chuckled, even if it pained him. ‘You think that either of us can ever achieve that?’ 

She grinned, nodding again. ‘We’ll just be two people who love each other.’ 

‘Well where do you want to go?’

‘Somewhere beautiful.’ 

Ben nodded, leaning against the pillow at his neck, his eyes glancing at the ceiling, before he smiled, a thumb drifting across Rey’s cheek. ‘I think I know just the place.’ His eyes hardened then, and Rey leaned away slightly. ‘What about your friends?’ 

‘I’m sure they are celebrating well enough without me.’ Rey sat up, her hand pressed over his heart, feeling its steady beat. ‘This way we leave silently, peacefully. We can’t help rebuild, not us, it shouldn’t be us.’ He frowned slightly, but it was tempered by Rey’s easy smile. ‘If the Jedi continue, or something else, something better, it’s untainted by our own suffering, by our own mistakes and pasts. Balance as the Force wants. As the Force will always want.’ 

‘Okay.’ 

Rey leaned forward, brushing her lips against Ben’s, her hand tight in his, and their eyes held in the warmest of conversations. 

‘I love you,’ she eventually said when minutes had passed and a tenseness seemed to leave Ben as he met her expression with a smile of his own. 

And nobody did look for them. The Resistance were thankful, Rey was sure, particularly by the messages of thanks to those who had given their lives, that had been sent around the galaxy. Rey saw them on the few trips they took into Hanna City, though much to Rey’s frustration, none of them included Ben’s name. 

Ben’s old home on Chandrila had housed a few droids in low battery mode, who recognised him when awoken, and the pair slipped into a quiet life together, being able to love each other without restraint, and to remember the family they had lost. It was Ben’s idea to do this with a small plot in their garden, a tintolive tree for all those they had lost, and a promise to each other that they wouldn’t forget.

The trees that lined the plot became the perfect place for their ceremony, and even despite the power they both previously had being reduced to little more than telekinetic tricks, they could feel their parents through the Force. Like comforting hands on their shoulders, leading them together, pushing them ever forward to a peaceful future. 

‘What name will we take now?’ Rey asked as they sat together in their garden, the sunset inking the sky in hues of pink and gold. 

Ben folded their fingers together, considering. ‘My dad never particularly liked Solo, so I think Skywalker. My grandmother was never able to claim it for herself, and I like to think that we can live the life that she always wanted.’ 

Rey nodded, taking a breath before turning towards Ben. His eyes were already on her, and she smiled, before reaching towards him and drawing a tendril of his soft curls away from his face. ‘We should plant more tintolive trees. For your grandparents too.’ 

He pulled his arm over her shoulders and Rey leaned into him, resting her cheek against his chest and her arms wrapping around his stomach.

‘I’d like that.’ 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. I just needed to write something.


End file.
